Architects Journal25 March 2004

250 16% BDP 1 Top of the table for the fourth year in a row, despite having 20 fewer architects than this time last year. Highlights of the past year include St Joseph's Care Village (AJ 10.7.03, pictured below), the Armada Housing project in Den Bosch, the Netherlands (pictured bottom), South Bank University's Keyworth Building featured in this week's building study, and countless others - BDP is responsible for about 2 per cent of all new, non-housing buildings in the UK each year. Last yea

HOK INTERNATIONAL 3 155 22% American practice HOK has 1,649 employees worldwide, of which 541 are architects - the highest number of qualified architects globally of any AJ100 practice. The UK office is the centre of operations in Europe, supporting alliances with other practices in 10 major cities.Director Andrew Barraclough is currently working with the National Audit Office on research into the impact of PFI on design. HOK has overtaken Foster and Partners as the highest earning architectu

NIGHTINGALE ASSOCIATES 6 135 36% Oxford-based Nightingale is the table's fastest riser in terms of number of architects, and plans to take on a further 27 architects this year. It bought Studio BAAD's Yorkshire-based healthcare operation last April in a bid to increase its presence in the north of England.'We are responding to the growing healthcare, education and science markets, firstly by pushing design boundaries, such as our work on Sense Sensitive Design and, secondly, by planned region

CAPITA PROPERTY CONSULTANCY 8 98 8% Architects represent just 5 per cent of the total UK workforce of this multidisciplinary consultancy, which has a total staff of 2,050 and is about to get even bigger. It has just acquired Symonds Group, an industry leader in providing consultancy, management and design services to the property and infrastructure markets. The two will formally merge in the summer to form Capita Symonds, which will have 2,700 employees in 39 offices across the UK.

RHWL PARTNERSHIP 11 90 33% Down in numbers but RHWL's Geoff Mann has big plans for the next few years. He is keen to focus on collaborative projects such as the recently unveiled proposal for a £300 million,33-storey,120m-high tower for P&O Developments next to Waterloo Station (pictured), designed with engineer Chris Wise and artist Christopher LeBrun. The practice has just completed the refurbishment and improvement of the London Coliseum for ENO and is working on football grounds in N

CHETWOOD ASSOCIATES =16 71 35% The practice is working on three major mixed-use urban development schemes as well as more quirky projects such as a private house in the Andes with a 360infinity view, and a green hotel in Clerkenwell which draws on some of the design ideas explored in Laurie Chetwood's idiosyncratic Butterfly House (AJ 18.12.03, pictured). Managing director Laurie Chetwood says: 'We have had to learn to balance the commercial with the lateral with the imaginative.'

SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL 25 56 16% SOM triumphed in the high-profile competition for NATO's headquarters in Brussels and is shortlisted for the competition for Carlisle Pier in Dun Laoghaire. Other projects include the 2.74ha London Arena redevelopment at Crossharbour for Ballymore, which includes a residential tower that has been cut from 51 to 42 storeys in response to public consultation.

MASON RICHARDS PARTNERSHIP =26 55 9% Up 11 places, Mason Richards Partnership, the second largest Midlands practice, has offices in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bristol and a total workforce of 286. The practice is thriving on a broad base of small projects which straddles volume housebuilding as well as more commercial work. It also tops the list for earning the most fee income per qualified architect.See page 62 for the secret of its success.

EPR ARCHITECTS =34 50 10% EPR linked up with Greenhill Jenner last year to work on medical projects - they are currently working on a £5 million refurbishment project at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which includes a new diagnostic centre, a headquarters building for Surrey County Council and an office development for Land Securities in London's Victoria.

RYDERHKS =37 48 15% Already the largest practice in the North East, Ryder merged with US giant HKS in June to form a mega-practice, with 291 qualified architects worldwide and headquarters in Newcastle and Dallas. It is about to open an office in London's Soho, which will focus heavily on UK markets. New commissions include five school projects, a proposal for the redevelopment of the former shipbuilding works in South Shields (pictured) and the £330 million New Staffordshire Hospital -

SWANKE HAYDEN CONNELL ARCHITECTS =44 45 9% A £9 million library for the Open University in Milton Keynes has just been handed over to the client, and a 93,000m 2fit-out at Lehman Brothers'new offices at Canary Wharf is almost complete. The practice is also working on an 80-home development in east London for the Salvation Army Housing Association.

HLM DESIGN 49 41 22% HLM has 344 staff,195 of whom work abroad.Current projects include the £50 million PFI Brent ACAD centre, an extension to Stoke Mandeville Hospital and two £30 million PFI prisons, at Ashford and Peterborough. It has just won a competition for a military college in Oman.

DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS 55 38 37% David Chipperfield won a RIBA award for his own holiday home in Galicia, Spain, and recently completed a studio for Antony Gormley in King's Cross (AJ 18.3.04). Pacific Quay, the 32,000m 2scheme for the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow, was submitted for planning at the start of the year.

WIMBERLY ALLISON TONG & GOO =58 35 29% Last year saw the completion of the Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai - 7,000 dwellings in 36 towers with retail and commercial space at podium level. Significant milestones in the coming year include the construction of a Sheraton in Cairo; the start of a five-star resort in Ireland; and the completion of a five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi. 'WATG's growing workload reflects the increasingly buoyant market in the Gulf, ' says director Jeremy Heyes.

HADFIELD CAWKWELL DAVIDSON =74 32 19% 'It has been a difficult year with less work coming from the food retail sector due to the state of that market, 'says senior partner Russell Cooper. But he adds that: 'This has been somewhat made up by extra work from the structural engineering side' and that 'next year looks promising'.

JESTICO + WHILES =82 29 17% Jestico + Whiles has majored on education during the past six months, with projects such as the Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage; a hall of residence for the University of Southampton; and city academies in Lewisham and Greenwich.

HALSALL LLOYD PARTNERSHIP =90 25 8% The past two years have seen a shift from housing to education and health/community work. The practice is working on a masterplan for East Aston and an area framework project for Aston, New Town and Lozells in Birmingham.Halsall Lloyd retains an interest in housing but the focus is on pioneering new forms of construction.

THE BIGGEST EARNER HOK is the biggest-grossing practice, having earned £32,100,000 in 2003.Design director Larry Malcic attributes this success to the fact that 'HOK has always fostered an approach of diversity and tried to be strong in many different building types and professional services.

Western Europe 64.5% Eastern Europe 4% America 8% Middle East 10% Far East 10% Australasia 1% Africa 2.5% 'There's a strong market for residential work in central Europe, where for many people it's the first time they've been able to take out mortgages' Tony Ingram, Jestico + Whiles 'The Far East, China, India, South America and particularly Brazil are going to be the most challenging areas over the next 20 years. But Europe will remain strong' George Ferguson, RIBA president 'Clearly China i

Private housing 18.5% Public housing/housing associations 12.5% Retail 9% Industrial 0.5% Offices 5% Arts and leisure 3% Education 24% Healthcare 14% Other public buildings 3% Conservation 3% Transport 7.5% 'We have an opportunity like never before to build hundreds of thousands of new homes in areas where they are most needed' Jon Rouse, CABE 'The key sectors over the next few years will be transport and infrastructure, airports in particular, and mixed-use schemes' Ken Shuttleworth, make 'T

Pictured above is Will Alsop's design for the Architecture Pavilion at this year's Interbuild. Sponsored by Formica, the pavilion will include the AJ bar, the RIBA lounge, and the Building Centre Trust's exhibition, 'Going Digital'. Interbuild is at the NEC, Birmingham, from 25-29 April (www. interbuild. com).

News that chancellor Gordon Brown has ripped up planning guidance discouraging out-of-town shopping centres will have come as welcome news to the big shed boys who like nothing better than a nice car-access-only megastructure on a greenfield site. The planned changes in PPG6 resulted in a shock, horror front-page lead in the Daily Telegraph this week - since when did planning policy guidance make the front page of anything? What is weird (or maybe not) about New Labour's attitude to planning

I recently exchanged three days in our London office for time in Basel, with the 'business'of indulging in the delights encoded in the Michelin Red Guide and undertaking an architectural inspection of projects (ours on paper, others' in the flesh).

The latest report on 'democratic' architecture, by Ben Rogers (son of Lord R), Reinventing the Town Hall, has received a favourable press, and it is a nicely illustrated essay on the subject. The publication is produced by IPPR, usually said to be the government's favourite think-tank.

Readers will need little reminding about the government's attitude to that other principled piece of planning guidance introduced by John Gummer in the early 1990s, that is to say the possibility of building a country house (plus landscape design) if the proposal is good enough. The great egalitarian John Prescott, who loves hobnobbing with the Prince of Wales over design codes drawn up for millionaire communities in the US to keep the proles out, is determined that individuals in the UK can

Meanwhile, the house-building lobby is cock-a-hoop at the report produced by Kate Barker at Gordon Brown's behest, which sets out an economist's argument in favour of ripping up planning protections for the countryside, and indeed flood plains, to let some of the biggest design vandals in Britain do their worst. The pack of half-truths in the announcement of the report bear a close look, not least because they give the game away about the failure of New Labour to tackle housing need. A good s

Just how hypocritical New Labour is over development in the countryside was illustrated in an Observer news story at the weekend in which 'Two Jags' announced his plans to build two million homes in the next decade. Perhaps he thinks they will be required to provide communities who can swell the coffers of out-of-town retailers. The numbers being quoted get sillier and appear designed to give seizures to the folk at the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), whose Neil Sinden is

Arriving in York in 1962, Patrick Nuttgens found a city 'already scarred by modern intrusions, displaying a remarkable lack of scholarship and an equally remarkable vulgarity'. Nuttgens, who has died at the age of 74, was an architect and educator with a passionate commitment to the Modernist cause in architecture and design, who was equally keen to conserve the best of the past - and frequently depressed by the failure of Modernism to contribute positively to the fabric of historic cities su

It was amusing to read Michael Aukett's comment that after a meeting with CABE to discuss his designs for a big scheme in Croydon, the resulting letter, which included some mild criticisms, was very different to what was indicated at the meeting. As Aukett has confirmed to the AJ, he was not actually present at the meeting. Skills like this have to be paid for.

Astragal's 'The Ones That Got Away' competition features schemes that, for better or worse, stayed on the drawing board. Can you identify this project and its architect? Post your entry, to arrive by first thing Monday morning, to AJ Astragal, 151 Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4GB, or fax 020 7505 6701.The first correct entry out of the hat wins a bottle of champagne.The never-built scheme in last week's competition (AJ 18.3.04) was Michael Graves' addition to the Whitney Museum in New York (1

Projects as diverse as a train station in Sunderland and a sound sculpture in Gateshead were celebrated last night as the Civic Trust dished out more than 40 awards at a ceremony in Bristol. The annual event - which this year focused on urban projects - also featured nine 'special awards', including a sustainability award for Bill Dunster's BedZED and an access award for Levitt Bernstein's LSO St Luke's in London's Islington.

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